Semaglutide Could Curb Alcohol Cravings According to USC Study

A randomized, placebo-controlled trial validates a side effect frequently observed by doctors and patients.

A new study from USC suggests that semaglutide—the drug marketed as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for obesity—may also help reduce alcohol consumption.

Published in JAMA Psychiatry, the research found that participants taking the weekly medication experienced lower alcohol cravings, reduced drinking quantities, and fewer heavy drinking days compared to those on a placebo.

This discovery could help fill a significant treatment gap. Alcohol is responsible for an estimated 178,000 deaths annually in the U.S. and is a major contributor to liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers, as highlighted by the U.S. Surgeon General. Despite nearly one-third of American adults meeting criteria for problematic drinking at some point in their lives, very few seek or receive treatment.

The study affirms a common observation by many patients and doctors since Ozempic and drugs like it exploded in popularity: people begin weekly injections of semaglutide for obesity or diabetes — and suddenly lose their desire for alcohol.

This is the first randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of semaglutide designed to study the phenomenon, said Christian Hendershot, first author of the study and director of clinical research at USC’s Institute for Addiction Science.

The drugs currently approved to treat alcohol use disorder aren’t widely used. The popularity of semaglutide and other GLP-1 receptor agonists increases the chances of broad adoption of these treatments for alcohol use disorder, if approved for this indication, said Hendershot, who is a professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

These results justify larger studies of GLP-1 receptor agonists for alcohol use disorder, Hendershot added.

The experiment

For the trial, researchers recruited 48 adults with alcohol use disorder who weren’t actively seeking treatment. Alcohol use disorder is defined by a range of possible symptoms, including the inability to stop or control one’s drinking despite negative consequences.

Participants had a past-month drinking history of more than seven (for women) or more than 14 (for men) standard drinks in a week as well as two or more heavy drinking episodes (4 or more drinks for women and 5 or more for men).

One week prior to the first injection, researchers invited participants to drink their preferred alcoholic beverages over a two-hour period in a comfortable, lab setting, with instructions to delay drinking if they wished. Researchers documented delays and drinks consumed.

Participants were then randomly assigned to receive weekly, low-dose injections of Ozempic or a placebo for nine weeks, during which time their weekly drinking patterns were also measured. Afterward, participants and researchers returned to the drinking lab to repeat the process and see what changed.

What changed?

Results, measured by grams of alcohol consumed and breath alcohol concentration, indicated that semaglutide injections reduced weekly alcohol craving, reduced average drinks on drinking days, and led to greater reductions in heavy drinking days, relative to the placebo. A key finding was that the magnitude of semaglutide’s effects on several drinking outcomes was relatively greater than is often seen with existing medications to reduce alcohol cravings, even though semaglutide was only administered at the lowest clinical doses.

In the last month of treatment, those in the semaglutide group significantly reduced their number of heavy drinking days. Also, nearly 40% of people in the semaglutide group reported no heavy drinking days in the last month of treatment, compared to 20% in the placebo group.

Among a small subgroup of participants who smoked cigarettes at baseline, those treated with semaglutide had significantly greater reductions in average cigarettes per day compared to those in the placebo group.

“These data suggest the potential of semaglutide and similar drugs to fill an unmet need for the treatment of alcohol use disorder,” said senior author Klara Klein of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “Larger and longer studies in broader populations are needed to fully understand the safety and efficacy in people with alcohol use disorder, but these initial findings are promising.”

Reference: “Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults With Alcohol Use Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial” by Christian S. Hendershot, Michael P. Bremmer, Michael B. Paladino, Georgios Kostantinis, Thomas A. Gilmore, Neil R. Sullivan, Amanda C. Tow, Sarah S. Dermody, Mark A. Prince, Robyn Jordan, Sherry A. McKee, Paul J. Fletcher, Eric D. Claus and Klara R. Klein, 12 February 2025, JAMA Psychiatry.
DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4789

This research was supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grant R21AA026931.